


got a hold on me like glue (baby I'm howling for you)

by cinderlily



Category: Hockey RPF
Genre: Arizona State University, Cheese, College AU, M/M, Randomness
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-06-13
Updated: 2017-06-13
Packaged: 2018-11-13 13:34:02
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,927
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11186172
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/cinderlily/pseuds/cinderlily
Summary: The hockey team was doing their usual studying session, when they hear a howl coming from A Mountain.





	got a hold on me like glue (baby I'm howling for you)

Mikkel had finished his final final two days before the rest of the team, because he’d been smart enough to read the syllabus and figured out that if he swung decent grades on his stuff he could drop the lowest grade. He boggled at how the rest of the guys even survived, especially Mikey and Shane who were graduating in a week. 

Either way, he showed up for the group study session because he was going home for the summer so he figured he’d suck up some time with the guys before he was across the Atlantic. The fact that PV Main had the best diner in its center was a bonus. 

They all grabbed food and walked out towards the Stadium, it was well lit even on non-game nights and Shane had an in with the innkeeper. It was tradition to study at the top, even if it was mind numbingly hot in AZ after dark. 

He helped Tobi figure out the basics of the Psych class they were taking together, even though every once in awhile he had to say a word in English to Connor who would then try his best to come up with a way around it in German. 

He boggled how the two dumbasses didn’t realize they were going to date soon, as Connor was on his third semester of _German_ for fucks’ sake. But whatever. He also helped Connor with some math he was really only mildly better at. 

“Anybody know where the Swede is?” Mikey asked, a half hour in, mid bite of a BLT. “Do you think he got lost?” 

Everyone looked at Mikkel. Which. Uh. He blinked. “What?” 

Mikey tilted his head at him and smirked. “Well, he is usually at your hip, where the fuck is he?” 

Okay, fair enough. 

“Olie had a final in the Ed building, he said he’d be here,” Mikkel shrugged. “We shared a car and I have the keys so he couldn’t have forgotten.” 

He slipped his phone out of his pocket and checked for missed texts. Nothing. He sent a text simply saying, ‘ _var du?_ ’ and looked back at the group with a shrug. 

A moment later his phone gave a slight ding and he saw the response of, ‘en sekund’. 

“He says give him a second,” Mikkel said, but just as he put the phone down he heard a loud and long scream that came from behind him. He turned around and then back at the guys. “What the…?” 

There was another scream, maybe the same voice but possibly a different one, followed by another and another. It was surprisingly loud as he knew it wasn’t in the damn stadium, he could see everything from this high up. He looked at Shane, as he seemed to know everything, or acted like he did. 

“Cap?”

“Why the hell you asking him? Just cause he’s from Canada…” Connor said. 

“He _is_ getting his degree in Biological Studies,” Tobi said, looking up from his textbook. 

Shane gave them all a frown. “That was humans, guys.” 

“You’ve been here the longest?” Mikkel offered. 

“Fuck you, I’ve been here as long as him,” Mikey said. “Well, a semester less. But still.” 

“Well, do you know why there is screaming coming from A Mountain?” Mikkel asked. 

Mikey shrugged. “Someone finally realizing we are paying too much to get useless paper that does shit for us?” 

“Helpful,” Shane punched his arm. “Come on guys, focus on work. Work.” 

“It’s not like we’ll get ousted from a game,” Max muttered. 

Duke, beside him, jumped in before Shane. “Yeah, but we have to graduate. It’s not _all_ hockey.” 

The yelling began again. It was absurd, but the hair on the back of Mikkel’s neck perked up just slightly, he pulled his phone out and hit send on the last call. It rang three times and the screaming stopped. 

“Meeks!” Olie said, his voice a little hoarse. “Vad?” 

“Where are you, we’re studying. Tradition, transfer, follow?” 

Olie laughed. “No studying when you’re done.” 

He heard a voice in the background, clearly speaking Swedish and he was trying to catch it but there was another voice and it wasn’t speaking Swedish but English or Gibberish he couldn’t tell. “I finished two days ago, you said you were coming.” 

“I’ll be there, soon, for now I howl.” 

The line went dead before Mikkel could ask him what the fuck he was talking about. Something in the back of his head was trying to remind him of something. Maybe something Mads talked about? But he couldn’t quite place it. Either way, the screams came back with a vengeance and he knew it wasn’t coincidence. 

“I’ve got to go get Olie,” Mikkel said. “Who’s in?” 

Connor looked up from his notebook and arched an eyebrow. “Don’t you have a car?” 

“Yeah, it’ll only get me so far,” Mikkel said, standing up and wiping off his jeans. “Who’s up for a little fresh air?” 

Max laughed. “We are literally IN the fresh air, dude. How much fresher we talking? Pure oxygen? Hot air balloon?” 

If he got the A next year he was going to make that kid do so many bag skates he would beg for mercy. He swore it. Not that he thought he was getting it next year, but he would be a Senior, which was just freaking weird. He frowned at Max and didn’t even dignify it with an answer. Rather he turned to Mikey. 

“I’ll buy you some beer after you finish your last final,” he offered. 

“You had me at hello,” Mikey said, faking choked up. “Tobs. Come with us. That vein in your head is freaking me out.” 

Tobi looked up and yeah, he did look like maybe he needed a little air. “Vas?” 

“Come on, fucker, we’re going hiking to find Mikkel’s man,” Mikey said, pulling at Tobi’s arm. Connor gave Mikey an annoyed look but Tobi went willingly. It took a minute before Mikkel came to the rest of the sentence. 

“Wait, he isn’t _my_ man,” Mikkel said. “He’s my friend.” 

Mikey squeezed his shoulder. “Keep telling yourself that.” 

“I can’t, I have to study,” Tobi said, but at best it was half hearted. 

“I’ll quiz you as we go,” Mikkel offered. “Come on, I’ve got the psych thing down. Look at the crazy we are surrounded by.” 

Tobi cracked a small smile but gently closed his book. Connor looked like _maybe_ he might say something but instead he looked down at his book and made a face at the pages. Seriously, Mikkel gave it three days after the semester ended and they were separated before the two of them were sexting and drunk calling all the time. He had to make a bet with Mikey. 

Mikey, Tobs and himself walked down the stairs. A few of his teammates yelled after them they were being stupid and that Oliver was capable of taking care of himself but Mikkel flicked them off without paying much attention. He wasn’t _worried_ exactly about Oliver. But maybe he should check in on him. Especially if he was with the Russian dude … Alex? Alec? That guy was not the best influence. 

His car was in one of the pay spots near the Field, a beat up old Taurus that he loved for no reason other than it was _his_ and it had taken a while to get his American driving license. Mikey, as always, made a comment about it being a hunk of junk, so Tobi got front seat. 

“Is it even legal to drive up the mountain?” Tobi asked. 

Mikey jumped in. “Legal smeagal, our boy might be in trouble. We protect our own.” 

“We aren’t driving up, we’re just driving closer. Then we climb,” Mikkel said. “It’s barely a mountain, stop whining. Who was the nut job with the pigeons?” 

Tobi made a face in his side view. “Skinner. Duh.” 

“Tell me what the pigeons experiment was about?” 

Mikkel was distracting him, mostly. They had parked, it wasn’t that far of a drive. He didn’t have change so he had to kind of hope that the whole ticket squad wasn’t out in force. Granted he was parking less than 100 feet from the parking building but he ignored that. 

“Operant conditioning.” 

“Which is?” Mikkel said, finding the beginning of the rough little path up the hill. He heard a holler, loud and intense but he wasn’t going to pay attention because … well. Maybe he was a little more than just _worried_ about Oliver. 

“Negative and positive reinforcement versus negative and positive punishment.” 

Mikey, ahead of them all, turned around. “Ohh, punishment, I could get into that.” 

Mikkel ignored him. “Give me an example of negative reinforcement.” 

There was a long silence and Mikkel could hear Tobi muttering in German. Maybe they should have dragged Connor in on this, but eh. They might end up making out on the mountain which would just be distracting for anyone. 

“Okay, first person to show up to the ice doesn’t have to do bag skates,” Mikkel said. “I am taking away the shitty stuff because you did what we wanted you to do, show up to the ice on time.

“Now positive punishment? You are the last on ice, you have to clean up the pucks AND you do extra runs.”

They were making a fairly good clip, and thankfully he wasn’t joking when he said that it wasn’t that high of a mountain. He put his hands to his side as they got closer up the mountain. 

“Ooo, baby,” Mikey said. “Talk hockey to me. You figure a way to explain my final in Chem in hockey terms and I’ll buy YOU beer.” 

“Your major is physical education,” Mikkel rolled his eyes. “How did you put Chem off till your last semester. You use your last semester for the easy stuff, right?” 

Mikey groaned. “You sound like Shane, man. That is most definitely not a compliment.” 

A howl interrupted him from retorting that he would kill to sound like the Captain. It was nearby. Really really nearby. He passed by the two behind him and climbed higher and higher until he could see the base of the A and looked around to find that Nicklas and Oliver were standing on the bar of the A screaming at the top of their lungs, while Alex (he was pretty sure) sat doubled over beside them. 

“Hvad helvede?” he asked no one in particular, but Oliver heard his voice and looked down. 

“MIKKEL!” he screamed. “It’s Mikkel, I knew he’d come.” 

Mikkel ignored the tittering from behind him. Jesus, Mikey was twelve. “Yeah, buddy, right here. Of course I’d come to see you.” 

“You see, I’m done,” Oliver called out. “I’m done with my sophomore year, do you see?” 

Oliver was… drunk? He hadn’t been much more than a beer drinker for all that Mikkel knew. He looked immediately to the doubled over Russian. 

“What did you give him, Alex?” 

“ _Alexander_ and vodka!” Alexander smiled and showed him a bottle. “It best, it _Russian_.” 

Mikkel sighed, and thought of all the ways that he was going to kick Alexander in his stupid ass later on. He looked up at where Oliver was beaming down at him and his stomach did that strange flip that it only did for Oliver. He didn’t look behind him because he could almost feel the smirk on Mikey’s face. 

“What are you guys doing?” Mikey asked, laughing. 

Nicklas, there just longer that his English was a lot less screwed when he was drunk smiled. “Tradition. The yell of hell, I call it. We do it in Sweden. It’s normal.” 

“Normal?” Mikkel frowned. 

Alexander made a face at Mikkel. “Yes, it lets out the stress.” 

“But people are studying or sleep---” 

He couldn’t finish the statement as, while he was turned Mikey had climbed up on the A and was staring out at the campus. His howl was louder than both the Swedes combined. The guy had the lung capacity of a freaking Opera singer. He put his fingers up to his nose. 

"Get down, Smith." 

Mike smiled like a Cheshire cat. “No.” 

“Mike, NOT HELPING,” Mikkel barked. Mike just grinned at him and howled again. “Tobi, help me get…” 

Nope, Tobi was joining in on the fray. It was about as expected. He did the only thing he could think to do, he called in reinforcements. He sent a text to the group chat the guys kept up, with simply, ‘ _Help, idiots on the A howling’_

A moment later Mikey paused in his scream and looked down at Mikkel. “Buzzkill.” 

“Shut up, Mikey, and get down. The other two are drunk, what’s your excuse?” 

“I’m graduating freaking COLLEGE, fucker.” Mikey said. “I’ve got a grown up job. And now I get to howl at the moon like a cat in heat. It’s pretty freaking awesome.” 

To make the point he howled again, followed closely by grabbing at the bottom of his shirt and pulling it off. Give him a chance to be naked. Great, he’d doubled his problems in the span of two minutes. Maybe he should’ve just come by himself. 

He figured the best course of action was to wait and to hope that no one fell. The fall wouldn’t be _that_ bad but his car wasn’t exactly made for blood and he had to keep it for at least a few more years. Plus hiking with a human leaning on him. His body hummed for a second as Oliver looked down at him and beamed down at him like he was the whole reason for howling, for smiling, and for his happiness. 

Damn Mikey and his knowledge of Mikkel’s crush. 

“Come up Meeks,” Oliver called out. “It’s worth it, I promise. It feels… amazing.” 

Mikkel firmly shook his head. “We’re going to get in trouble, you know that, right?” 

“What will they do? Tell us to climb off?” Mikey said. “We aren’t painting it U of A colors, we’re blowing off steam.” 

Mikkel rolled his neck to make it crack. “If _we_ could hear it in the stadium, others will hear it. Plus Ollie is underage. I would guess Nick is as well.” 

“Twenty one,” Nick said, slurred and annoyed. “I’m not a child.”

Oliver made a face at him, but Mikkel was the only one to see it. He heard footsteps from behind them and hoped, blindly, it was his friends and not, in fact, the cops he was threatening the guys with. When he heard a very distinctly Connor voice curse, twice, he sighed in relief. 

“Over here,” he called out. 

Shane was the first to show up, using his phone as a flashlight. “Yeah, we guessed, you guys aren’t quiet at all.” 

Mikey’s face went from a smile to a flat out shit eating grin. “Come on up, Old Man. I am letting out my inner beast. Ollie is drunk. It’s a party.” 

Shane crossed his arms and looked first at Mikey then Ollie and finally Mikkel. “This was supposed to be helping?” 

“I didn’t think Alexander the Jerk would be here with Vodka,” Mikkel motioned to where Alex leant against the side. 

“Come on,” Shane said. “Let’s get them down.” 

Except, Connor was already climbing up, followed closely by Max and Duke. It was like a parade of dumbasses and Mikkel felt like throwing in the towel. The howls that followed were loud and echoing through the little canyon that led to the stadium. 

“It feels good,” Max grinned. “Stop being parents, Mikkel and Shane and get up here.” 

They looked at each other and Shane shrugged, basically leaving Mikkel fucked. He was going to have to go up or risk the wrath of mocking from his teammates for the foreseeable future. He took the side that Alex was on, found a foothold and climbed up. He knew he was probably going to regret this but once he got up on the little part of the A and nearby Oliver the fear subsided enough. 

“Meeks, we’re done,” Oliver smiled into his chest. “We are done.” 

He could smell the vodka on his breath, a nasty cheap brand and he was almost entirely sure that most days it would make him want to puke. (He’d had a bad vodka experience.) But instead, the warm breath on his skin, the way Oliver’s smile was pressed against him, it left him feeling that weird happiness that spread in his blood and his chest. He looked up at the sky and let out a howl. 

“Feel good?” Oliver looked up at him. 

It had, but not as much as the feeling of the body against him. Impulsively he yanked at the hair at the bottom of Oliver’s neck and leaned down to give him a deep kiss. It barely took a second for Oliver to get into the game and they were kissing with a serenade of howling hockey players around them. When they stopped he looked over and, not shockingly, found Mikey giving him a wink. 

“Why are you going home for the summer?” Oliver breathed at him, pressing a quick kiss to his lips. “Why?” 

Mikkel tilted one side of his lips up. “I don’t know if you know this, Ollie, there is a tunnel between us. Only a few hours.” 

Oliver smiled wider. “Only a few hours?”

“Close enough to visit,” he said and Oliver kissed him again. 

He howled again, stupidly giddy. 

“Oh thank everything holy,” Mikey said from beyond Oliver. “You two have been doing the dumb dance for too freaking long. Almost as bad as Tobs and Connor… OW.” 

Mikkel laughed as he caught sight of Shane, who’d somehow shimmied to be next to Mike, elbow him. 

“Can we all sit down, at very least?” Shane asked. “Just what I want is a dumb ass injury affecting the team next year.” 

“You’re graduating, Old One,” Mikey said, but he had already kicked down to let his feet hang a little off the A. “Let the Captainship go.” 

Shane laughed. “Well, about that. You know this school has a graduate program in Kinesiology? Coach said I could stay on in advisor role.” 

“What the fuck? I’m the only one leave-leaving?” Mikey pouted. “You fuck nut, I hate you.” 

“We’re still going to live with each other, Mikey,” Shane said. “Your job is here. You’ll come to games.” 

Mikey frowned and made a huge scene of it. It was kind of painful actually. Mikkel could feel his pain a little. Even with a whole year left he was still feeling the beginnings of adulthood pulling at him. And he would be homeward bound, which would mean NO games to visit. 

It felt weird when, out of nowhere Oliver started laughing, loudly. 

“What’s so funny?” Mikey said and Mikkel looked where Oliver was looking. 

“Well, Mikey,” Mikkel pointed past Shane. “You leave a legacy of getting some people action.” 

Down the A Connor and Tobi were, well, it would be classified as making out only in that clothes were technically on. Shane closed his eyes and shimmied as far towards Mikey as he possibly could. 

“Jesus, don’t forget a condom,” Mikey said, but he was laughing too. “We can’t be raising mini Tobi/Connors.” 

“Aww, no one has had the talk with you,” Shane teased, even though he was looking at the two guys carefully out of the corner of his eye. 

Alex, from the side, was laughing like he was going to puke. He pointed towards the two, Tobi pressing Connor down on the letter. “Someone have ‘Talk’ with THEM.” 

“We should still be studying,” Mikey said. “Some of us do still have finals left and I swear to Gd, if Tobi fails a class because he screwed on A mountain… well. I’d be fucking proud as hell. But you foreign kids need good grades to stay and I want a good team.” 

Ollie lulled his head on Mikkel’s neck, body relaxing and easing into his. Mikkel didn’t want the moment to end. He figured he didn’t have to, necessarily, as he and Ollie didn’t have classes left but… 

“I should get this one back to the apartment,” Mikkel said. “I’ll give you guys a ride back to the field.” 

Shane shook his head. “I’ve got the truck.” 

The truck was a massive piece of shit but it was large enough to actually keep all the people if he needed.

“You sure you don’t want to separate those two,” he pointed to Connor and Tobi.

“That’s what a hose is for. Benefit of the truck bed,” Shane smiled. 

Mikey put his hand up. “Fucking shotgun, bitches.” 

“I’ll take Nick and Alex,” Mikkel said. They lived close enough. 

“We good,” Alex said. “Stay here. Enjoy night.” 

That boy could make even the more innocent of sentences sound sleazy. Mikkel looked at him for a full minute. He hadn’t seen any other cars, and their apartments weren’t that far, if you took the bus or train. So he shrugged. 

“Come on, Ollie,” he nudged Oliver. “Time to go home.” 

“Home,” he said. “Home is here.” 

And he slipped his hand into Mikkel’s hand. It was sweet and alcohol induced and Mikkel might have liked it just a little bit too much, but hell yeah he was going to chirp the fuck out of him about that for weeks to come. 

* 

The next semester felt an eternity later, but it ended the same way. There were a few newbies that came with them, but overall the same guys. Even Mikey, who insisted that he was allowed to come because he had had more stress to get out than the baby college newbies. 

Oliver was sober this time, though he was still being a bit of a sap. 

The howls were loud and echoed through the empty still basically warm air of a December night. They’d waited till _everyone_ was done this time, so there was no chance of people missing any finals. Though, Tobi liked to point out, he’d aced his Chem final the last semester and Connor liked to say he aced his German final as well, but he’d gotten a C. 

Shane was smiling at the group like he’d come up with the whole idea himself. It was ridiculous and stupid but Mikkel didn’t mind. He had one more of these to come and he wasn’t going to waste time chirping Shane about his inherent Dadness. Instead he let himself lull against a howling Oliver and avoiding looking at Tobi and Connor who still couldn’t keep their stupid hands off each other. 

He’d heard someone in one of his classes talking about howls from the A mountain the semester before and he’d hid his laughter while people wondered who it was. He put a hand over Oliver’s thigh and squeezed tight. Oliver stopped howling and grabbed his hand to intertwine their fingers. 

“You want to go?” Oliver asked, almost concerned. “Our flight is pretty early tomorrow.” 

They were going to Oliver’s for Christmas and his for New Year’s. It was a little bit of a huge thing and his mother had called him a hundred times to ask what types of food Ollie would want, but it was no matter. He shook his head. “Nah, I’m good here for a little bit longer. 

“Yeah?” 

Mikkel gave him an obnoxiously sloppy kiss on his cheeks and squeezed their linked hands. “Yeah, we’re home.” 

He probably deserved the punch to his thigh. It was worth it.

**Author's Note:**

> Okay, I went to ASU years and years ago so some liberties were taken. 
> 
> Based off of a prompt from freetodream5 and betaed by the lovely LuciFern.


End file.
